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Submitted by jbudziszewski on Mon, 12/08/2014 - 00:00

We interrupt this series of blog posts for an important announcement.

As many readers of this blog know, my Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Law was published a few months ago. There were some glitches with its partner volume, but I’m glad to say that the unglitched Companion to the Commentary is now available for download. The two books work together, and the Companion -- the supplement to end all supplements – is free. So if you’re interested in the Treatise at all, this is a big deal. Please tell your friends, teachers, students, and acquisitions librarians.

Here’s the backstory. Many moons ago, when I had finally sent my promised manuscript on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Law to Cambridge University Press, all seemed well. Cambridge liked it. The reviewers liked it. There was one problem: Without realizing it, I had submitted a manuscript almost twice as long as it was supposed to be. It would have produced a book of about 800 pages. Can you imagine curling up in front of the fireplace with a granite block like that? You would have needed a forklift to carry it. And who could have afforded it?

The editors and I hit on this solution: The book would be divided into two books. The Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Law would still include the all-important line-by-line commentary on Questions 90-97 – the hugely important, central sections on law in general, the types of law, eternal law, natural law, and human law. But two big chunks of the book would emigrate to a second book which we would call the Companion to the Commentary: First, all the thematic discussions I provide over and above the line-by-line commentary, and second, additional line-by-line commentary on excerpts from Questions 98-108, on divine law.

The Commentary is published both in print and electronically, and you have to pay for it. The Companion is available only as a PDF, but distributed for free -- a huge bonus. Of course both books are under copyright.

You can find more information, including samples of the text and endorsements by other scholars, here.